“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” - George W. Bush

Saturday, July 23, 2016

George Galloway On Minding Our Own Business

“If you blow up the world, some of the debris is going to fall down onto your own head. And that’s what our leaders have done, and they’re still doing,” he says. “There seems to be no limit to their stupidity. Don’t imagine we’re run by James Bonds. We really are not. We’re run by Johnny English, or Austin Powers. We're run by fools. By clowns.”

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DENVER — A Colorado man who joined Kurdish forces in their fight against the Islamic State group was killed in combat in Syria, his mother said.

Susan Shirley said the U.S. Consulate in Turkey called her Tuesday to tell her that her son Levi Shirley, 24, was killed July 14 by a land mine.

She said Thursday her son had wanted to join the Marines since high school, but he couldn’t because of bad eyesight. He reached out to Kurdish forces online and joined the fight in Iraq and Syria for about three months last year before returning to Arvada in suburban Denver.

“He saw ISIS as a terrible evil, and that just was not OK with him,” Shirley said. “That’s the way his mind works. If you are defenseless, he will help you.”

Shirley said her son was never much of a fighter, but he had been involved in about a dozen gunbattles during his first stint in the Middle East and “that was enough to convince him that war is not as romantic as he thought.”

But he had a hard time adjusting to life back in Colorado while working at fast-food restaurants.

Shirley said her son told her he was trying to raise money for tuition to get emergency medical training in Texas, but in hindsight she thinks he was saving for airfare back to the Middle East. He rejoined the Kurds in January.

“He had a very big heart,” Shirley said. “He was so brave to go back the second time, knowing what he was in for. He just really cared about the underdog.”

State Department officials said Thursday they are aware of reports that an American was killed in Syria, but they declined to comment further.

Carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower and its strike group launched jets on their first strikes against ISIS from the Persian Gulf on Friday, as they continue the campaign to destroy the militants sowing chaos in Iraq and Syria.

Ike and its embarked Carrier Air Wing 3 have been deployed for nearly two months and earlier carried out ISIS strikes from the Mediterranean Sea.

"The efforts of the 'Ike-Battle Axe' team have and will continue to be instrumental in the fight against ISIL," air wing commander Capt. Jeffrey Anderson said in a Navy release Friday.

Ike is the latest in a rotation of carriers sent to the gulf to fight ISIS since the George H.W. Bush dropped the first Operation Inherent Resolve bombs in June 2014. Since then, the Carl Vinson, Theodore Roosevelt and the Harry S. Truman have all joined in the fight to " dismantle and roll back terrorist networks in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere and to ensure free flow of commerce," according to the release. Truman set the record for most bombs dropped in its extended deployment.

The Ike left Norfolk on June 1, spending several weeks launching 116 sorties from the Med in support of Operation Inherent Resolve on its way to relieve the Truman Carrier Strike Group in 5th Fleet.

Donald Trump told the audience of the Republican National Convention that ISIS wasn’t an issue before Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state.

"In 2009, pre-Hillary, ISIS was not even on the map," he said July 21. "Libya was stable. Egypt was peaceful. Iraq was seeing, really a big big reduction in violence. Iran was being choked by sanctions. Syria was somewhat under control. After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? ISIS has spread across the region, and the entire world."

Trump made a similar claim pointing the finger at Clinton for the creation of ISIS in an interview that aired on 60 Minutes Sunday, a day before the convention began.

While the name ISIS (or Islamic State or Daesh, etc.) is relatively new, the leaders and founders have origins that pre-date Clinton’s time as the chief diplomat of the United States.

Look to the top right of this blog at the photo of Ronald Reagan meeting men of god in the White House:

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.

Mr. Kaine speaks fluent Spanish from spending time in Honduras, attends a mostly black Catholic Church in DC, and his oldest son is a Marine.The Latino vote: checkThe Black vote: checkPerceived strength and pro military: check

But I had no idea how dangerous it is.....here I've been sitting here all this time, and jeez, I've got the equivalent of a Munich killer right an arm's length away.

What do I do now ? I don't know what to do. I don't want to piss it off by moving it. Maybe I'll have to change rooms...

Kerry: Air conditioners as big a threat as the Islamic StateBy Robert Spencer on Jul 22, 2016 04:30 pm

Kerry: Air conditioners as big a threat as the Islamic State

Stop laughing. Kerry is right.

Watch for the next mass shooting by your air conditioner. Remember all those manifestos your air conditioner issued, vowing the imminent destruction of the U.S. “Kerry: Air Conditioners as Big a Threat as ISIS,” by Alyssa Canobbio, Washington Free Beacon, July 22, 2016: Secretary of State John Kerry said in Vienna […]Read in browser »

At least 80 people were killed and 231 injured Saturday when suicide bombers attacked a large demonstration in the Afghan capital of Kabul, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry.

The demonstration was organized by ethnic Hazaras demanding that a major regional power line be rerouted through their impoverished home province. Most Hazaras are Shiite Muslims but most Afghans are Sunni.

The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement on its Amaq News Agency that two of its fighters detonated explosive belts during the march, the KHAAMA news agency reported...

5 years ago al Qaeda in Iraq spread to Syria and changed their name to ISIS.

Today, we are fighting al Qaeda/ISIS worldwide including the US.

Our efforts over the past 35 years and to date show the complete incompetence of the US leadership in the fight against al Qaeda/ISIS. As Galloway said...

"Don’t imagine we’re run by James Bonds. We really are not. We’re run by Johnny English, or Austin Powers. We're run by fools. By clowns.”

I would imagine the million or more people who have died either directly or indirectly as a result of our actions, the millions who have been turned into refugees, the millions who suffer from lost opportunities associated with the trillions of dollars we have wasted on the fighting might have a different opinion than you on whether the we should be 'fighting back against ISIS' especially when that fighting is taking place in their country.

How many of the people in these countries would simply say, 'Please, don't do us any more favors.'

We have enough problems fighting these radical nuts in our own country. That's were our efforts should be concentrated. We sure don't need to be creating more of them in other countries.

I don't know anything about his politics but he's got twice the energy as Trump. More importantly, forget about him being able to speak Spanish fluently, the man is able to speak in clear, simple English sentences which provides him a big advantage over Trump.

Kaine’s acceptance of gifts in Virginia could create opening for Republicans

Who is Virginia Senator Tim Kaine?

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Hillary Clinton’s running mate, who speaks Spanish, worked as a Catholic missionary in Honduras and has been mayor of Richmond, lieutenant governor and governor of Virginia and Democratic National Committee chairman.

By Rosalind S. Helderman July 22 at 8:20 PM 

During his strenuous race for governor of Virginia in 2005, Timothy M. Kaine found himself chatting with James Murray, a wealthy venture capitalist, and acknowledged that the physical strain of the campaign was becoming difficult.

In response, Murray made an offer: Win or lose, after the November election, Kaine and his family should spend time at Murray’s vacation home on the exclusive Caribbean island of Mustique. The home, situated on an island point with stunning views of the Caribbean and Atlantic oceans, would be empty and Kaine could use it for free. “No sleeves off my vest,” Murray recalled in an interview.

Kaine disclosed that gift in his annual Virginia financial disclosure form, estimating that the free use of the home came at an $18,000 value.

Such gifts were legal at the time in Virginia, which had permissive laws that allowed officeholders to accept gifts of any amount provided those valued at more than $50 were disclosed.....(see the Big Kaine Graph of Graft below)

Graft dictionary definition | graft defined

www.yourdictionary.com/graft

Graft is defined as the act of taking advantage of your political position or government job by taking money or property in dishonest or fraudulent ways.

IMO, there was no way ISIS was going to take Iraq with or without the US being there. Again, IMO, they had gone about as far as they could go when we entered the fighting. Remember, there were only about 10,000 ISIS to begin with trying to take over a country of nearly 40 million.

Their strength was in Anbar where they had a Sunni population that had been discriminated against for years and had no love for the central government in Baghdad. Anbar wasn't getting its share of resources from Baghdad and the Sunni were discriminated against in the army.

Baghdad on the other hand was protected not only by the army but also by the numerous Shia militias that supported it. Likewise, you forget the US wasn't the only player there. Iran would have provided enough support to keep the Southeast free of ISIS. And the central government and the Kurds were the ones who controlled the oil you are talking about.

As for the Kurds, they may have been poorly armed but they made up for it in numbers and fighting ability. Also, as we have seen if the worst were to happen (unlikely), the Peshmerga could count on support from the Kurds outside of Iraq. We have also seen that Turkey was willing to send troops to help the Iraqi Kurds if they needed it. IMO, there was/is little chance ISIS could have conquered Kurdistan.

Also, with their base under attack from the Assad/Russia coalition and al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, it's likely they would have eventually been forced to withdraw from Iraq.

Bottom line their are countries right there in the ME that have actual national interests associated with Iraq/Syria (Syria, Iraq, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, etc). The US doesn't.

Kaine’s bland, risk-averse political persona means he’s a fascinating measuring stick of the leftward shift in Democratic politics over the past decade.

The 2005 era Tim Kaine sounded downright Republican: “I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman and that marriage is a uniquely valuable institution that must be preserved.” “I supported reducing Virginia’s sales tax on food and prescription drugs. I supported tax reform that eliminated the marriage penalty, reduced everyone’s income tax, and took over 140,000 Virginians off the tax rolls entirely.”

He believed in enforcing “the current Virginia restrictions on abortion and passing an enforceable ban on partial birth abortion that protects the life and health of the mother” and “fighting teen pregnancy through abstinence-focused education.” His campaign literature promised, “Tim Kaine strongly supports the Second Amendment. As the next Governor of Virginia, he will not propose any new gun laws.”

Once he was elected governor, Kaine pushed for tax increases again and again. He began by pitching $1 billion tax increase, as well as increasing car registration fees and imposing steeper fines on drivers who got tickets. Two years later, he proposed a $1.1 billion plan to hike the titling tax and vehicle registration fees. In his final year in office, Kaine proposed increasing the state’s income tax another percentage point to 6.75 percent. Republican state legislators blocked all these proposals. I

Once elected to the Senate in 2012, Kaine “tried to cultivate an image as an abortion-rights champion. He’s pleased reproductive rights’ groups with a perfect voting record.” He discovered that he believed in gay marriage in 2013. By 2011, Kaine, who once ran ads falsely implying NRA President Charleton Heston praised his record, said he supported measures to restrict the number of bullets that can be fired from a single magazine.

Recently he declared that the Orlando nightclub terror attack was “just an additional wake up call that we need to find solutions to reduce this scourge of gun violence.” Maybe Kaine and Hillary bonded over how lucrative life in elected office can be. While he was governor, Kaine received $186,899 in gifts and travel – Redskins tickets, cases of wine, etecetra. He didn’t get in legal trouble the way Bob McDonnell did because he disclosed all of the gifts on the proper forms.

California has among the highest taxes in the nation. Its base sales tax rate of 7.5% is higher than that of any other state, and its top marginal income tax rate of 13.3% is the highest state income tax rate in the country.

Meanwhile, he told the Times that he hopes to get lots of help from Erdogan in confronting ISIS. Apparently, Trump is unaware that ISIS would not be ISIS were it not for Erdogan’s support. I will never be able to say I want him to win — only that I’m certain I want Hillary Clinton to lose.

It bears remembering here that the Republican administration of George W. Bush was the first to embrace Erdogan, sticking by him as he re-Islamized Turkey and brutally suppressed dissent. Those were the heady days of “Islamic democracy” promotion when Republicans assured us that sharia and freedom were perfectly compatible.

And now, as Trump blows kisses at the rapacious Vladimir Putin and signals to the Times that he is ready to abandon our nation’s NATO treaty obligation to defend the Baltics from Russian aggression, it similarly bears remembering that it was Bush who first proclaimed Putin trustworthy — a strategic partner — upon gazing into his eyes and examining his soul.===Whoever wins, I know that come January, I will be in the conservative opposition to a statist administration, and in search of a new party to call home.

A worker wires a phone on the convention floor as setup continue before the 2016 Democratic Convention in Philadelphia, Saturday, July 23, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Efforts by Bernie Sanders supporters to eliminate or reduce the influence of superdelegates failed at a meeting of the Democratic National Convention rules committee Saturday.

At the gathering in a Philadelphia conference room Saturday, an amendment to get rid of superdelegates — party insiders who can vote for the candidate of their choice at the convention — was defeated, as were a number of efforts to limit the power of super delegates. The proposals did win enough support to potentially move on to the convention floor for votes next week, though compromise plans were still being discussed by the Democratic campaigns.

Discussing the proposal to eliminate superdelegates, Aaron Regunberg, a Sanders delegate and a Rhode Island lawmaker, argued that the current system does not "reflect our core values." But Clinton supporters argued that the superdelegate system brings more people into the political process and instead called for a more extensive review of the nominating process.

As the various amendments were voted down, Sanders supporters in the back of the hall expressed their frustration, shouting: "Shame ... shame ... shame!"

Sanders has been critical of superdelegates during his contentious primary fight with presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. His supporters argue Clinton's substantial superdelegate lead may have influenced the outcome of the race, although Clinton also led Sanders with pledged delegates. Late in the race, Sanders sought to flip superdelegates with little success.

There are 713 superdelegates, mainly members of Congress and members of the Democratic National Committee. Clinton leads Sanders with superdelegates 602 to 48.

Some 'gentleman' carrying a large bag of red, white and blue balloons wearing a cap with a logo THE Superdelegate and a wind twirler on the top tried to raise a ruckus and take over the Committee meeting claiming he had a vote and that it overrode all others.

This man, who was being called 'fool' by most of those present, was easily overcome by the heavy Security Forces present, and was 'escorted' - dragged - out of the room.

When a young and dumb CNN reporter covering events in Cleveland this week chose to ask an elderly black supporter of GOP nominee Donald Trump a race-baiting question about the candidate’s alleged racism, the supporter unleashed a rapid-fire torrent of truth.

“Cops say the man called the Church back in April asking, ‘Are there any bombings I can do?’ The man, who ID’d himself as a Muslim, said he ‘liked to do suicide bombings.'” Actually, that’s not really something you can make a career out of. “Suicide Bombing Threat to Scientology ‘Allah Akbar, Tom,'” TMZ, July […]

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Tom Cruise has been pulled into the middle of a police investigation surrounding a potential suicide bomber who made alarming threats to the Church of Scientology.

Cops say the man called the Church back in April asking, “Are there any bombings I can do?” The man, who ID’d himself as a Muslim, said he “liked to do suicide bombings.”

According to police docs, the caller began singing, “Allah Akbar, Tom Cruise” … the phrase some terrorists have used as they attack. He then hung up….

(I recall Q once toying with the idea of joining up with the Scientologists. He was at the time lapsing from The True Catholic Faith, and was seeking an alternative, and found them attractive. He was particularly contrite at the time about some fraud or other he had recently pulled:

"Bobbo", he had said, "I knew I was a fallen asshole but had no idea I had only one chance left."

He was in a kind of odd uber Augustinian mood in those days. I was able to get him out of it with the aid of a couple bottles of Scotch, and some rented poontang.)

If you’re over 40, working more than 25 hours a week could be affecting your intelligence, new research suggests.

By Georgina Kenyon

18 July 2016

Don’t do an IQ test after a full week’s work if you are 40 years or older. You could be disappointed.

If you’re over 40, working more than 25 hours of work a week could be impairing your intelligence, according to a study released in February by researchers for the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research in Australia. The team conducted reading, pattern and memory tests in more than 6,000 workers aged over 40, to see how the number of hours worked each week affects a person’s cognitive ability....

Saturday in a speech to the National Council of La Raza in Orlando, FL, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) excoriated Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, referring to him as a “fraud” and someone as president that would fan “the flames of hatred and division.”

===

La Raza and Ms Warren, on the other hand, offer the warm embrace of love and inclusiveness.

In the 1987 general election, Galloway was elected the MP for Glasgow Hillhead in a Labour Party gain from the Social Democratic Party defeating Roy Jenkins with a majority of 3,251.[58] Although known for his left-wing views, Galloway was never a member of the Campaign Group, Labour's leftist groupings of MPs.[30] In a 2002 Guardian interview, ((((Galloway said he had supported the Soviet Union and asserted that its end was "the biggest catastrophe of my life")))).[21] Galloway told Robert Chalmers of The Independent on Sunday in June 2012: (((("I am not a pacifist. I am a revolutionary. I am a Socialist who doesn't like Capitalism and who likes Imperialism less. I am a revolutionary and I support the armed struggle where there is no alternative."))))[59]

At a press gathering for War on Want in September 1987, when Galloway had stood down as General Secretary to the organisation, a journalist asked him about his personal arrangements during the previous year's War on Want conference on the Greek island of Mykonos.[40] The new MP replied: "I travelled and spent lots of time with people in Greece, many of whom were women, some of whom were known carnally to me. I actually had sexual intercourse with some of the people in Greece."[60] By then separated from his first wife,[61] Galloway made front page headlines in the tabloid press at the time. Many years later, in a 2016 New Internationalist interview, he speculated that an incident of sexual abuse from a Colonel, which he suffered when he was 12, has led to a "lifelong fear of being gay and this led me into ostentatious, rapacious heterosexual promiscuity".[62]....

Malik Obama, 1/2 brother to O'bozo, who lives in Kenya, and I assume is a citizen there, though he can vote in Maryland (who cares these days?), has broken with O'bozo, saying he has really messed everything up.

He now supports The Donald.

He is also super pissed at O'bozo for allowing the killing of his pal Q-Ducky, even though Hillary the Corrupt was mostly behind it.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.